Gritters

[Jimbo26]

Haven't seen one today.

 

[philsussex]

Good news. Another day off methinks

 

[Horton's halftime iceberg]

There was a gritter with a snow plough going around the level this morning, but its gritter spinner was not on. It was still snowing so maybe it does not work, I was suprised as it cleared the road of snow very well.

 

[mcshane in the 79th]

Isn't it a bit late for gritting?

 

[Lyndhurst 14]

Gritters ? - thought he was still heading the Youth Acadamy at Charlton.

 

[Martinf]

We can moan all we want but the basic problem is that this country cannot deal with extreme weather conditions.

And as they dont happen that often (even if it feels like it does at the moment) is it worth the expense of preparing for it? Many years ago East Sussex County Council spent thousands on a snow blower or two ( I think) but the snow blowers spent most of their life rusting in a depot and were hardly used. Waste of money.

I do feel sorry for the old dears though who live alone and will be stuck in because the pavements/roads in side roads and village roads wont ever be grittted.

 

[franks brother]

There you go u have scene one today

 

[Lady Whistledown]

God I'm bored of people moaning about gritters, or the lack of.

They have to be sent out at a specific time, before it freezes, but not too soon before as cars and moisture will simply wash the grit away. I saw plenty out last night, doing what they're supposed to do. Gritting now that the roads are already covered in snow won't do much good, even if the gritters could actually get through.

I accept that local authorities do sometimes cock things up, but why are we seemingly incapable of accepting that sometimes nature just beats us?

All I've heard recently is whinging about perceived lack of gritters, the fact that the pavements were icy (do you expect the council to use their dwindling supplies of salt to sort out the pavements as well when homeowners could just get off their arses and sweep the snow away? Is it not better for the council to concentrate on main roads?) and (most boring of all), the fact that other countries cope better than we do, based entirely on anecdotal evidence and tabloid newspaper stories, and inevitably featuring countries that get ten times as much snow as we do. So they bloody should!

I wouldn't for a second suggest mistakes are never made, but come on, this is a fairly unusual weather pattern for the UK, especially Southern England, so we are going to get caught out occasionally. Stop moaning and get some NUTS

 

[brighton rock]

we had 4000 tons in at ther harbour the other day plenty to go round for a wile

 

[brighton rock]

God I'm bored of people moaning about gritters, or the lack of.

They have to be sent out at a specific time, before it freezes, but not too soon before as cars and moisture will simply wash the grit away. I saw plenty out last night, doing what they're supposed to do. Gritting now that the roads are already covered in snow won't do much good, even if the gritters could actually get through.

I accept that local authorities do sometimes cock things up, but why are we seemingly incapable of accepting that sometimes nature just beats us?

All I've heard recently is whinging about perceived lack of gritters, the fact that the pavements were icy (do you expect the council to use their dwindling supplies of salt to sort out the pavements as well when homeowners could just get off their arses and sweep the snow away? Is it not better for the council to concentrate on main roads?) and (most boring of all), the fact that other countries cope better than we do, based entirely on anecdotal evidence and tabloid newspaper stories, and inevitably featuring countries that get ten times as much snow as we do. So they bloody should!

I wouldn't for a second suggest mistakes are never made, but come on, this is a fairly unusual weather pattern for the UK, especially Southern England, so we are going to get caught out occasionally. Stop moaning and get some NUTS

very true gritt lorries are only used for 6 weeks of the year for the rest ot the time they sit there doing sod all our c tax would have to go up big time if we wanted more trucks

 

[Scotty Mac]

a snow plough got stuck in balcombe - lots of people kicked off about this, i merely found it bloody amusing

 

[pasty]

Gremlins was much better

 

[beorhthelm]

never mind the gritters, i want to know why the councils are doing bugger all about clearing the pavements. i imagine from comments last time its the same, not an inch cleared. my route home from the station was completely covered by snow, now compacting down into a nice inch thick ice sheet.

now, the council employs road sweepers. as far as i can see, they arent out today sweeping due to the snow.... why arent they shovelling snow instead? must be nice for them to be all tucked up in their depot/home while the tax payer goes off to try and make it to work.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

As I have said before, if you tolerate Mary Mears your country will be next.

 

[Gwylan]

God I'm bored of people moaning about gritters, or the lack of.

They have to be sent out at a specific time, before it freezes, but not too soon before as cars and moisture will simply wash the grit away. I saw plenty out last night, doing what they're supposed to do. Gritting now that the roads are already covered in snow won't do much good, even if the gritters could actually get through.

I accept that local authorities do sometimes cock things up, but why are we seemingly incapable of accepting that sometimes nature just beats us?

All I've heard recently is whinging about perceived lack of gritters, the fact that the pavements were icy (do you expect the council to use their dwindling supplies of salt to sort out the pavements as well when homeowners could just get off their arses and sweep the snow away? Is it not better for the council to concentrate on main roads?) and (most boring of all), the fact that other countries cope better than we do, based entirely on anecdotal evidence and tabloid newspaper stories, and inevitably featuring countries that get ten times as much snow as we do. So they bloody should!

I wouldn't for a second suggest mistakes are never made, but come on, this is a fairly unusual weather pattern for the UK, especially Southern England, so we are going to get caught out occasionally. Stop moaning and get some NUTS

While I think there's a lot of moaning about griiters, I take issue with the idea that this is an unusual weather pattern. I remember that snow fell with amazing regularity in January and February (and occasionally December and March, I also remember a blizzard at the cricket in April). In fact, I find it hard to recall a year in the 60s and 70s when it didn't snow - and often much deeper than this.

I was in Bradford in the winter of 1978 and 1979 and the snow was much, much heavier than this - it was about two or three feet thick on the ground on our walk back from uni. There was snow on the ground when I got back after the Christmas break and snow on the ground when I left for Easter, that's how snowy it was then.

The thing is, there was not a single lecture cancelled, the buses ran all through winter and the school at the end of our road was kept open. Why is that winter weather didn't close schools and business or halt transport then, yet it does now? Were things better organised then? Or were we just hardier and got on with things?

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

While I think there's a lot of moaning about griiters, I take issue with the idea that this is an unusual weather pattern. I remember that snow fell with amazing regularity in January and February (and occasionally December and March, I also remember a blizzard at the cricket in April). In fact, I find it hard to recall a year in the 60s and 70s when it didn't snow - and often much deeper than this.

I was in Bradford in the winter of 1978 and 1979 and the snow was much, much heavier than this - it was about two or three feet thick on the ground on our walk back from uni. There was snow on the ground when I got back after the Christmas break and snow on the ground when I left for Easter, that's how snowy it was then.

The thing is, there was not a single lecture cancelled, the buses ran all through winter and the school at the end of our road was kept open. Why is that winter weather didn't close schools and business or halt transport then, yet it does now? Were things better organised then? Or were we just hardier and got on with things?

and when you compare the cost of not gritting (lost business revenue, cost to the NHS, cost to other various emergency services) against the cost of gritting it is a total no brainer.

 

[sam86]

I reckon those doing community service should be out in this freezing weather sweeping the pavements.

That is all.

 

[Simster]

God I'm bored of people moaning about gritters, or the lack of.

They have to be sent out at a specific time, before it freezes, but not too soon before as cars and moisture will simply wash the grit away. I saw plenty out last night, doing what they're supposed to do. Gritting now that the roads are already covered in snow won't do much good, even if the gritters could actually get through.

I accept that local authorities do sometimes cock things up, but why are we seemingly incapable of accepting that sometimes nature just beats us?

All I've heard recently is whinging about perceived lack of gritters, the fact that the pavements were icy (do you expect the council to use their dwindling supplies of salt to sort out the pavements as well when homeowners could just get off their arses and sweep the snow away? Is it not better for the council to concentrate on main roads?) and (most boring of all), the fact that other countries cope better than we do, based entirely on anecdotal evidence and tabloid newspaper stories, and inevitably featuring countries that get ten times as much snow as we do. So they bloody should!

I wouldn't for a second suggest mistakes are never made, but come on, this is a fairly unusual weather pattern for the UK, especially Southern England, so we are going to get caught out occasionally. Stop moaning and get some NUTS

I tend to agree with most of this. While we've always had snow, it only affects us for about 2 weeks a year max, so we're not likely to invest the infrastructure to cope with vast quantites of the stuff like they do in Scandinavia, Canada or the Alpine countries.

Just accept the fact that nature beats us at times, don't take needless risks and try to enjoy it. IMO.

 

[ali jenkins]

I saw a gritter last night


That is all

 

[Gwylan]

I tend to agree with most of this. While we've always had snow, it only affects us for about 2 weeks a year max, so we're not likely to invest the infrastructure to cope with vast quantites of the stuff like they do in Scandinavia, Canada or the Alpine countries.

This is true but it doesn't explain why the buses ran and schools stayed open in those two weeks of snow in the 60s, 70s and 80s and don't now. What's the difference?